On this and subsequent pages are representative photographs and CCD images of some of my first 400 comets. Unless otherwise specified, all photographs are copyright Alan Hale, and all CCD images are copyright Earthrise Institute.

Comet Bennett 1969i (no. 2), on March 25, 1970. Admittedly, not a very good photograph, but perhaps not too bad for someone who had just turned 12, using a handheld Brownie camera.

Comet West 1975n (no. 20), which appeared during the spring of my senior year of high school, and which I consider the best comet I've ever observed. Above left: March 3, 1976, from White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. Above right: photograph taken by my father, Nile Hale, on March 5, 1976. Below right: photograph taken through the Alamogordo (New Mexico) Public Schools' 32-cm reflector, on March 9, 1976.

Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock 1983d (no. 56), on May 7, 1983; the "head" of the constellation Draco is at lower right. Four days after this photograph was taken the comet passed 0.031 AU from Earth, the closest confirmed cometary approach to Earth during the 20th Century, and one of the closest in all of recorded history.